The present invention relates to an electronic scalpel for clotting blood vessels, adapted for surgical applications.
More particularly, as it will be better pointed out in the following description, the invention relates to an electronic scalpel adapted to transfer to the manipulator an electric power and therefore an energy adapted to carry out blood clotting in blood vessels without causing collapse of the vessel wall.
It is well known that blood clotting occurs because a proteinic substance dissolved in the plasma called fibrinogen during blood clotting is organized into a fibrous stable structure called fibrin.
In this way a fibrin mesh is obtained, preventing blood to come out from the blood vessel in which it flows.
Therefore enhancement of organization of fibrinogen into fibrin means to attain the conditions for blood clotting.
Tests have shown that coagulation, that is transformation of fibrinogen into fibrin occurs when to the plasma molecules such a kinetic energy is transferred as to increase their temperature at least up to 63° C. Under these conditions fibrinogen is transformed into fibrin without collapse of the blood vessel.
If a temperature of 80-85° C. is exceeded, the vessel collapses and the cells of the blood vessel wall die.
The presently available coagulation techniques carried out with electric scalpels cause a destruction of vessels creating a dead zone and moreover the electric scalpels operate with voltage values at dangerous levels sometimes of thousands of Volts.
The danger of high voltages together with the energy excess transmitted through the electric scalpels, causes destruction of the tissues of blood vessels as above mentioned.
Effected tests highlighted that the cells undergoing the action of the electronic scalpel, are not subject to necrotic degenerations when the energy transferred to break the molecular bond of these cells is substantially equal to the energy holding together said molecular bond.
As a matter of fact whenever energy is transferred to a cellular tissue, this causes the tissue molecules to vibrate and the increase of kinetic energy is transformed into a temperature increase of said tissue.
When temperature of the cells goes over 50° C., the cells necrotize and die.
Therefore it is extremely important to operate in such a way that the electronic scalpel carries out the cutting operation without producing heat in the surrounding tissue.
Moreover it was observed that the phenomenon of temperature increase does not occur when and only when the energy transferred to the tissue molecules is equal to the molecule bonding energy.
Indeed in this case the delivered energy is not used to increase the molecule kinetic energy, but only to break the bond joining the molecules to each other.